MS-Zimbabwe: Focus on Aids:

Let’s fight HIV/Aids together now

By Claudia Juhl, MS-Zimbabwe

01. December 2004

Today, 1st of December, is the World Aids Day. A day that is commemorated all around the world. The aim of the World Aids Day is to focus on the international endeavours to combat the spread of HIV/Aids and help those who are affected by the disease.

On behalf of MS-Zimbabwe I would like to use this opportunity to share a few thoughts with you and call upon all of you to join in the fight against HIV/Aids. Not only today but also tomorrow and in future! 

MS-Zimbabwe and its partners engage in the fight against HIV/Aids

The HIV/Aids pandemic remains one of the greatest challenges to development, as it affects all aspects of life and the society. Many of MS-Zimbabwe’s partners are directly involved in activities related to HIV/Aids, be it awareness raising, home based care, support to orphans, nutrition, etc. MS-Zimbabwe is happy to be able to support such important efforts through its partnerships.

Together with its partners MS-Zimbabwe also used the opportunity to focus on the complex challenges of HIV/Aids at this year’s Annual Meeting in February. The AGM was conducted under the theme “Let’s Fight HIV/Aids together now”, and the discussions focused especially on people living positively with the disease and how to mainstream HIV/Aids at organizational and program level. With regard to the latter, MS-Zimbabwe presented the new MS guidebook on mainstreaming of HIV/Aids, which has been distributed to all partners.

The issue of Mainstreaming HIV/Aids was furthermore explored when MS-Zimbabwe had the pleasure to receive a visit from Kirsten Madsen in June 2004. Kirsten Madsen is an experienced adviser and trainer on HIV/Aids from MS-Denmark, and during her stay in Zimbabwe she conducted several training workshop with partners on mainstreaming of HIV/Aids.

In an attempt to highlight MS-Zimbabwe’s commitment to the fight against HIV/Aids the MS-Zimbabwe Communication Committee came up with the idea to produce common Aids ribbons to give to partners, staff and friends in a joint commemoration of the World Aids Day. 

Facts we have to face – and change!

• In Sub-Saharan Africa some 25 million people are living with HIV, accounting to 70% of all people infected with the virus worldwide. In 2003 alone, an estimated 3 million people became newly infected, while 2.2 million people died of AIDS.

• Southern Africa remains the epicenter of the pandemic. Of the 7 countries in the region, all have prevalence above 15%. Botswana and Swaziland have the highest prevalence with 37.3 % and 38.8 % respectively. They are followed by Lesotho (28.9%), Zimbabwe (24.6%), South Africa (21.5%), Namibia (21.3%), and Zambia (16.5%).

• In Zimbabwe 2.1 to 2.3 million people were infected in 2003, the burden adult prevalence, 15-49 years old, being 33.7%. The epidemic has and continues to cause untold suffering with many children becoming orphaned, a health system that is failing to cope and the overburdened rural based people who now have to care for the AIDS sufferers. According to the Zimbabwe Human Development Report an estimated 600 000 people had full-blown AIDS in 2003. An average of 3000 Zimbabweans die of Aids related diseases each week.

Girls and Women bear the greatest burden

This year the World Aids Day, 1st of December, focuses on the challenges of the HIV/ Aids experienced by Girls and Women, linking it to the commemoration of the 16 Days of Activism on the Elimination of Violence against Women, starting on 25 November.

Today in Sub-Saharan Africa close to 60% of adults living with HIV are women, and 76% of the young people aged 15-24 living with HIV are female. In Zimbabwe nearly 65% of all HIV positive people aged between 15 and 49 are women.

Gender violence is linked to HIV transmission through rape and reduces the ability of women and vulnerable men to discuss sex with their partners. Violence and the fear of violence often hinder women’s ability to prevent transmission of HIV and comprise their access to a range of services, including testing and treatment.

Violence against women is any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life.

Global statistics are shocking, yet they serve to make us face realities on the ground:

• 33% of women have been victims of sexual abuse
• at least 45% have been threatened, insulted or had their personal possessions destroyed
• 49% have been beaten while pregnant
• 7,5 % have suffered miscarriages as a result of beatings
• 10-50% of women in every country experienced physical abuse by an intimate partner

Besides the danger of intimidation and violence the HIV/Aids pandemic also reflects gender inequality in relation to a number of other areas. Unequal rights to property mean that women may be forced to leave their homes when widowed or diagnosed HIV-positive. This increases their vulnerability to poverty and illness and can lead to the need to undertake sex work.

The burden of caring for the sick falls predominantly on women, compounding their domestic responsibilities. It is thus the orphaned girl child who tends to give up school in order to care for her brothers and sisters. It is the girl child who generally takes on the burden of running the household and taking care of the sick parents, if they are still alive. 

Unequal access to treatment means that fewer women then men are treated for HIV and Aids related illnesses. This directly increases the impact of the epidemic on women. Likewise unequal access to appropriate prevention information for women increases women’s vulnerability to HIV. Though there is need to focus on HIV/Aids awareness raising especially amongst girls and women.

This demonstrates the tragic consequence of the epidemic: Aids is undermining the drive to bring women into the economic, political and social life. There is a need to attend to the various factors that prevent girls and women children from accessing their rights.